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The Donation Cycle

Matching Process

Donors are selected by recipients based on their donor profile maintained on Special Creations website. Since our donors are pre-screened and only those that pass our rigorous screening process get listed on our donor panel, your chances of being selected by a recipient in a short amount of time is very good.

Cycle Synchronization

Once a donor is selected, her reproductive cycle must be synchronized with the recipient’s. This is accomplished with the use of injectable hormones under the direction of the recipient’s physician for approximately 7 to 14 days. Additional blood tests are also needed to check hormone levels and to check again for sexually transmitted diseases as required by the Food and Drug Administration.

Stimulation

Once the donor and the recipient have had their reproductive cycles synchronized, the donor’s ovarian stimulation begins. This is accomplished with injectable hormones under the direction of the recipient’s physician and typically lasts 8 to 11 days. During this process, additional blood tests and ultrasound examinations are necessary to closely monitor the ovarian stimulation process.

Trigger

When the donor ovarian follicles are determined to be fully stimulated, an additional injection will be given under the direction of the recipient’s physician that prepares the donor’s ovaries to release the eggs.

Retrieval

The retrieval process is scheduled 36 to 40 hours after the “trigger” has been administered. Under anesthesia and guided by an ultrasound, a thin needle is passed through your vaginal wall by the recipients doctor into your ovaries, gently withdrawing the stimulated eggs. Deep sedation or anesthesia is used under the direction of an anesthesiologist for your comfort. The process of egg retrieval takes less than an hour at an outpatient fertility or surgery center selected by your recipient. After the procedure, a donor will generally feel groggy from the sedative and may experience some spotty bleeding and / or cramping for a few hours. Most donors return to work or school the following day.